Method of surfacing roofing material



March 22, 1938.. Q L'EMERICK 2,111,565

METHOD OF SURFACING ROOFING MATERIAL Filed Nov. 25, 1933 ill lili

Illlh'llllllilm @F SlURll dCllNG htll llill 'lhlli llllll'lllE- Rlllillh lUharles 'll. lllimericlr, Rutherford, N. .l., assignor to The Fatent and licensing fiorporation, New lforlr, lil. lL, a corporation of Massachusetts Application November 23, 1933, Serial l lo. 699,31?

lllaims.

This invention relates to a method of applying granular surfacing material to a face of a sheet of roofing material or its equivalent.

it is an object of the invention to provide means for facilitating the manufacture of roofing elements such as strip shingles or individual shingles having areas of distinctive colors on the portion which is to be exposed to view when the element is laid with others in overlapping relation on a roof, and to provide for the economicalemployment of the surplus granular material which is deposited on such areas.

In manufacturing roofing units such as strip shingles, it is customary to saturate a sheet of roofing felt with asphalt of suitable characteristics. This saturated sheet is coated with an adhesive waterproof material such as blown or oxidized asphalt. While this coating layer is stlclry, it is surfaced by the application of granular material such as crushed slate, sufficient of the granular material being partially embedded in the sticlry asphaltic layer to form a practically continuous protective surface layer. In order to ensure the formation of such a surface layer, it is necessary to deposit on the coated face of the sheet an excess amount of the granular material. Where the surfacing material used on the sheet is of a single color, the excess grit which falls to adhere to the asphaltic layer is subsew uuently recovered and re-deposited upon the lli sheet so that there is substantially no loss of grit. Owing to a great demand for roofs of variegated colors, considerable quantities of roofing elements, such as strip shingles, are produced havlug on the exposed portions thereof areas of different distinctive colors, so that, when such roofing elements are laid upon a roof, the roof as a whole presents a vari-colored appearance. It is evident that, in order to produce areas of different distinctive colors on a roofing unit, it is necessary to apply separately to each area granular matter having the particular color desired for such area. This can be done with little difficulty, but, inasmuch as there must be deposited upon each such area more granular material than will adhere to the sticky face of the area, the problem of the ultimate disposition of the excess non-adhering granular matter from differently colored areas arranged longitudinally of the sheet has been a serious one since it is impractical to recover separately from each colored area the granular matter of the several colors. That is, in recovering loose grit from the surface of a sheet thus treated, the commingling of grits of the various colors cannot, as a practical mat- (Cl. Ell-Jill) ter, be avoided. It is an object of the present invention to utilize in a convenient and economical manner the commingled vari-colored granular matter recovered from the surface of a sheet of roofing material or the like. According to the invention, this object may be attained by depositing on predetermined areas of a sheet of sticky roofing grits of different colors for different areas comprising portions of the face of the sheet, recovering the excess non-adherent grit from these areas and depositing the recovered grit of commingled colors exclusively on the areas not previously covered.

For the protection of the outer face of a roofing unit, such as a strip shingle or individual shingle, it is desirable that the entire outer face, i. e. the face which is uppermost when the element lies on a roof, be entirely covered with grit or equivalent granular matter. However, as far as color effects are concerned, the only portion of the outer faceof the roofing unit which matters is that portion which is exposed to view when the roofing element is laid with others in overlapping courses on a roof. Hence, according to the present invention, these portions of each roofing element may be treated differently from the portions of the element which are covered and hidden from view when laid. Thus the exposed portions of the roofing element are surfaced in such a way as to provide areas of distinctive colors, the comrningled excess grit being employed to surface the covered or hidden areas of the roofing unit where the matter of color is of no importance. Furthermore, if desired, some of the mixed grit may be used on areas to be exposed to provide an additional color for such areas.

For a more complete understanding of the invention, reference may be had to the detailed description thereof which follows and to the disclosure thereof on the drawing, of which Figure l is a side elevation of mechanism em bodying the invention.

Figure 2 is a section on the line l2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a section on the line ii-i of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a perspective view of a sheet of roofing material, together with portions of the apparatus illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 5 is an elevation of a strip shingle made in accordance with the invention.

In the drawing, a sheet of roofing material is indicated at it, this sheet being of any suitable material such as the customary roofing felt which has been impregnated with asphalt or other water-resistant material. The sheet it may be a was single continuous sheet separate blanlt l edge in plane and conveyor belt (not sl'lownl.

or a composite sheet of rooli arranged be passed between a coated. on its upoc. suitable waterpro coating device if; or doctor lfi may be provid ensure an dist ibu tion of the coating over the face of u The sheet ther passes bcl or? spouts till, ill and it?) As indicated 4, each set of spouts may include a individual spouts spaced from each the width. of the sheet, so that, i any single se 'ere continuousl open, ""aveiin anulai-r matter or ,0 ben g alined ',o e e. L r 0. roll; t1

Figui I. allty e direction 1 sheet so that all the spouts in any on deposit grit only on an area defined I y o ove the spouts are respect ,the i tho greater or lesser l .er may b A single hopper may be employed for ea spouts, or, if desired, a separate hopper provided for each individual spout. hoppers Each of these hoppers may hold grit of a s color, or may be divided with suitable partitions into com partments for grits of different colors. Grit may be intermittently showered from these hoppers on a sheet traveling therebeneath by any suitable mechanism such as that described and illustrated in Letters Patent No. 1,791,560 granted to Heppes on February 10, 1931, the mechanism for controlling the grit being per se no part of the present invention.

As indicated on the drawing, valves or equivalent closure means are provided for the several spouts. For convenience, the valves in the spouts of each series are mounted on a common shaft 40 so as to operate in unison. Each shaft 40 may be rocked by suitable mechanism such as a lever arm 4| which extends radially from the shaft 40 and is connected by a rod 42 to a cam follower 43 riding on a cam 44, there being a separate cam for each of the shafts 40. The cams 44 may be mounted on a common shaft 45 which is rotated by any suitable mechanism in synchronism with the driving means by which the sheet I0 is advanced. By means of the cams 44 and the apparatus operated thereby, the spouts 20, 2| and 22 can be intermittently operated by their cams in such a manner as to cause the granular matter in the corresponding hoppers to be deposited in separate areas on the moving sheet, the areas of grit, formed by spouts which are alined in the direction of movement of the sheet, being contiguous so as to form a. continuous grit band 25 on the surface of the sheet, as indicated in Figure 4. Thus each band 25 is composed of successive contiguous areas of different colors, the several bands 25 being spaced from each other by intermediate areas 50 on which no grit is deposited by nt to the .rce c the r ale hopper which extends across the a adjac nt to the roll this hop deflecting VQ'lES ill arranged over faced by the spouts completes th face the sheet l.

terlnittently ope in the series several ts n; 2 bands Hfillg a wid 1 I the heig he into multi-tab strip shingles of convenient shape,

suitable slots E35 may be cut across each band 25 to form cut-outs in the finished strip shingle which will define the shingle-simulating tabs along the weather edge of the strip shingle. The operation of the spouts 20, 2| and 22 can be synchronized with the operation of the slotcutting mechanism in such a manner that the slots will coincide with the color boundaries between successive color areas in each of the bands 25. In such case each tab of the strip shingle will present a single solid color area. On the other hand, the color areas may be formed without regard to the location of the slots which either have been or are to be cut in the sheet, in which case the resulting strip shingle may have some such appearance as that indicated in Figure 5.

After the slotting operation, the sheet In may be longitudinally slit, some of the slits 66 being cut so as to intersect the rows of slots 65, other slits 6'! being cut on the medianlines of the bands 50 between successive bands 25. The strip shingles may then be severed from the sheet as by transverse cuts 68. It is evident that the strip shingles thus cut from the sheet will be substantially as illustrated in Figure 5, the exposed portion of the strip shlngle having areas of distinctive colors thereon, the upper or covered portion H being surfaced with grit in which the colors are commingled. The particular shape of roofing element illustrated in Figures 4 and 5 is by way of illustration only, it being evident that the process of the invention can be similarly employed in the manufacture of individual shingles or multiple shingles of other shapes, the invenairlines tion heing characterized hy the application of diiierently colored granular material to iorin areas oi diiierent colors on the exposed portion only oi the roofing element, and the application to the covered portion oi the roofing element oi granular material oi cominingled colors consisting oi excess material recovered from the differently colored areas.

lihe invention may also he applied to the manuiacture oi cross-cut strip shingles irom sheet roofing, as hy depositing diiierent grits oi ditierent colors in. longitudinally extending, spaced hands or lanes on the face oi the sheet, each hand or lane preierahly consisting oi successive areas of different colors, recovering the excess grits and depositing the recovered grits oi commingled colors exclusively on the intervening hands or lanes to complete the surfacing oi? the sheet, the sheet heing thereafter cut transversely to term shingles or other equivalent rooting units. in such rooting units, some oi the exposed areas would show the mixed or neutral color which would he diii'erent from any of the colors originally applied and which would therefore add to the variety oi colors exhihited hy the roofing units when laid.

it is evident that various modifications and changes may he made in the method and apparatus descrihed without departing irorn the spirit or scope oi the invention as defined in the following claims.

I claim:

i. ii method or applying colored granules to asphaltic rooting, which comprises depositing on said rooting spaced parallel hands of colored granules so as to i'orni areas oi difierent colors, collecting and mixing the excess granules irom the spaced hands, and depositing the collected granules exclusively on the remaining areas oi said roofing adjacent to said hands.

2. A method of applying colored granules to asphaitic roofing, which comprises depositing on said roofing spaced parallel longitudinal lanes oi granules, each oi said lanes having areas oi different colors, collecting and mixing the excess granules irom the spaced lanes, and depositing facing material to asphaltic roofing, which coinprises depositing an excess of surfacing material oi different colors on predetermined areas oi only those portions of the roofing which are to he exposed to view when laid on a roof, removing irorn said areas only the granules non atiherent thereto, and mixing and applying the removed granules to the remaining areas of said roofing.

Steps in a method of making asphaltic rociing elements, which comprise advancing a sheet oi adhesively coated roofing material, depositing an excess of granular surfacing material of dii= ierent colors on predetermined areas only oi the portions of said sheet which are to he exposed to view when the roofing elements out therefrom are laid on a roof, progressively depositing on the remaining areas only of said sheet mined granules recovered from preceding portions of the sheet, pressing the granular matter against the face of the sheet, and recovering from the pressed face of the sheet and mingling together the non-adherent granules thereon.

5. Steps in the method of making roohng elements, which comprises advancing a sheet of adheslvely coated asphaltic roofing material, showering on parallel spaced areas of said sheet excess granular grit of different colors so as to form bands consisting of successive contiguous patches of distinguishing colors, said hands alternating with hands of adhesive surface, collecting and showering the excess grit on the hands of adhesive surface to complete the surfacing oi the adhesive iace, pressing the surfaced sheet, recovering the loose granules from the pressed iace ior recirculation, splitting the sheet along the median line of each oi said hands, and severing individual elements from the slitted sheet.

SIS T. LIMERICK.

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